"I told him I felt lucky because I'm squeamish and can't handle needles. He told me to stay squeamish," Sorkin, 52, writes. "And he said this: 'If one of us dies of an overdose, probably 10 people who were about to won't.' He meant that our deaths would make news and maybe scare someone clean."

The conversation proved ominously prophetic. Hoffman was found dead of an apparent overdose in his West Village apartment Sunday morning. He was 46.

"We should stop implying that if he'd just taken the proper amount then everything would be fine," Sorkin writes. "He didn't die because he was partying too hard or because he was depressed – he died because he was an addict on a day of the week with a y in it."

Later, Sorkin lists the Oscar winner's many awards, urging, "Let's add to that 10 people who were about to die who won't now."